U.S. Members of Congress Live
on a Food Stamp Budget

June 08, 2007

THE HOTTEST diet sweeping the nation has very little in common with Atkins or South Beach. Carbs, in fact, seem to be the only item on the menu: Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is eating a box of crackers, a loaf of whole-wheat bread, tortillas and brown rice. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, subsisted on cornmeal -- until he cheated and had a pork chop. Eric Gioia, a city councilman in Queens, N.Y., found himself feeling "lousy" and "tired" after a few days of white bread, corn and ramen.

That's how the 26 million Americans who depend on food stamps feel every day.

A long list of politicos, both local (Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, has been filling up on 19-cent bananas and peanut butter sandwiches) and national, have taken a weeklong "food stamp challenge." By attempting to subsist on what they can buy with a week's worth of food stamps -- the average benefit is about $3 a day -- they hope to draw attention to this long-neglected, much-maligned program, which is up for reauthorization (and, hopefully, an $4 billion increase in benefits) in this year's Farm Bill.

Here's what Americans can learn from their ordeal: On $3 a day, it's tough to buy the fresh fruits, vegetables and quality proteins that make up a healthy diet. If a recipient makes a single poor choice at the supermarket -- breaks a single jar in the kitchen -- she may go hungry for days. There shouldn't be any doubt in our minds that increasing benefits for the food stamp program is a vital use of our resources.

Dinner - Chicken thigh and rice (with hot sauce from Taco Bell) and a can of peas Breakfast - A bowl of grits and a piece of toast Lunch - A banana and crackers

This is such an unhealthy diet. I am trying to eat the most healthy food I can afford, but I have no problem imagining how someone eating like this could quickly develop diabetes or high cholesterol. And with all these carbs, I can see how easy it would be to gain a fair amount of weight.

Last night I chopped up the last of my chicken thighs and mixed it with some rice. I added some hot sauce from Taco Bell and it tasted pretty good. I should also say that I have never, in my entire life, eaten an entire can of peas, but I did last night. So much sodium! It was more food than I needed, but with my travel schedule I'm going to have to go a long time between meals. I saved my last banana and the remainder of the crackers for lunch on the plane this afternoon.

June 07, 2007

It's hard to concentrate for any length of time on anything except food. I don't know how people with no money for decent meals do anything - study, work, exercise, read, have fun, etc. It's all about just making it through the day. I don't have to worry about my kids like I did when I was in college and on food stamps and like so many women do now. I only have four more days to go, and there are millions of people with no end in sight, who are permanently in this survival mode.

I have been thinking about green vegetables all day, and I wanted to get a taco, because it would have lettuce and cheese. I was in a meeting and by the time I was able to eat my taco, it was cold. I can't stand cold food, but let me tell you, even cold it tasted good.

I can't wait to get back to California. A friend told me that he knew a place where I can get greens for $.88 a bunch. If I am lucky I can find a ham hock to cook with them if I budget these last dollars right.

WASHINGTON - In an ornate room of the U.S. Capitol, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin offered for lunch a bologna sandwich, macaroni and cheese and a cup of sugary fruit punch -- value $1 -- on Tuesday in hopes of getting $3.7 billion in return.

"This is what poor people will have for lunch, and for dinner ... This is every day," Harkin told reporters beforehand.

The meal was intended as a first-hand demonstration that food stamp benefits, which average $1 a meal, should be increased. As chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Harkin sponsors legislation to boost food stamps by $3.7 billion over five years.

"It's pretty powerful," said North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad of Harkin's presentation, made at the weekly closed-door luncheon of Democratic senators. A few senators opted for the food-stamp meal. The rest chose from salad, salmon, chicken and other entrees with a dessert table available. "No desserts," said Harkin, for senators who selected the food-stamp menu.

The setting was symbolic -- lunch was served in the Senate room named for President Lyndon Johnson, who made food stamps a permanent program -- and Tuesday was National Hunger Awareness Day, a day when antihunger groups call for attention to public nutrition programs.

Some 26 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program, which helps poor people buy food. Food stamps are the major U.S. antihunger program.

According to the Agriculture Department, which runs the program, 65 percent of eligible people participate in the program, an increase from 54 percent in 2001. "No one should go hungry," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a statement.

Besides the plan backed by Harkin and Indiana Republican Richard Lugar, there is a House bill to increase food stamp spending by $5 billion. The Bush administration has proposed that college and retirement savings should not be counted when determining eligibility.

"We will work for as much as we can get," said Ellen Vollinger of the antihunger group Food Research and Action Center.

The Harkin-Lugar plan would change parts of the formula that determines the size of benefits given to applicants. They would allow recipients to have more than the current maximum of $2,000 in liquid assets and to deduct the full cost of child care. Eligibility would be restored to some legal immigrants and benefits for unemployed, childless adults would go up.

"We are adjusting the standard deduction," said Harkin. "That means they will get more."

June 06, 2007

Last night I made 2 burritos and ate some crackers. I baked 4 chicken thighs and froze 2 for next week. Today I ate a bowl of grits and a slice of toast for breakfast, a chicken sandwhich for lunch (made at home) and 4 crackers around 5p.m. Tonight, I will eat another chicken thigh, some rice and some peas.

Before I decided what to cook or eat or freeze last night I spent a long time thinking about making this food last for a week and how not to run out of food and money. I was literally counting crackers! It sounds funny, but honestly it was very stressful trying to figure out how to stretch this food. It is very painful to think of all the people in the U.S. who have to live like this - so much time and energy is taken up just thinking about how to survive. It's no way to live in the wealthiest country in the world.

June 05, 2007

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, walked into a Washington, D.C., McDonald's today, ordered a McChicken sandwich, and reportedly was mocked from behind the counter as she asked for ketchup, mustard -- and strawberry jam.

But for Lee this week -- as it is for millions of Americans every week -- getting every possible crumb of food for her buck was no laughing matter. Tuesday marked the start of Lee's "Food Stamp Challenge" in which she'll subsist for one week on $21, the national average weekly benefit for a food-stamp recipient.

That's about $1 per meal; at $1.10, even the over-sauced McChicken was busting her budget.

"It is important for the public to understand how many people rely on this program and just how limited their nutrition options are," she said.

The food-stamp program is up for reauthorization this summer as part of the 2007 Farm Bill, which is expected to be enacted by Oct. 1. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., who co-chair the House Hunger Caucus, took the challenge last month to highlight their call for another $4 billion to be added to the current $33 billion food-stamp budget; that would give a family of four another $48 per month.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also took part in the challenge's first round May 15 through 22.

About 65,000 Alameda County residents are enrolled in the food stamp program, and that's only 53 percent of those who are eligible. The program serves about 26 million low-income people across the nation, about half of whom are children and about 8 percent of whom are over 60. It's meant as a safety net for particularly tough times, and most people leave the program within nine months.

Lee received food stamps while attending college as a single mother of two. But changes to the program made during the welfare reforms of 1996 basically have worn down the stamps' buying power; food prices have increased without the stamps' value keeping pace.

So Lee spent $13.37 at a Washington, D.C., Safeway supermarket Tuesday, buying a box of vegetable crackers, a can of peas, two cans of beans, tortillas, a loaf of wheat bread, two bananas, a box of hominy grits, a bag of brown rice and a package of chicken thighs.

"I was struck by how hard it is to eat in a healthy manner on a tight budget. I had to put the apples back because they were too expensive. Whole wheat tortillas were twice as expensive as flour," she wrote later Tuesday on the challenge's blog, http://foodstampchallenge.typepad.com/ "I got grits instead of oatmeal, and I could not afford to get some of the things I eat every day, like nuts, juice or coffee (even instant coffee was $4 per container!)."

"So far, so good, although I am already ready for a snack," she wrote.

My name is Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and I represent California's Ninth Congressional District, and today I began the Food Stamp Challenge. Over the next seven days, I will live on $21 worth of food, the average weekly benefit for a food stamp recipient.

In my district, there are approximately 65,000 people enrolled in the food stamp program, which is a lot of people, but less than half of all who are eligible. Nationally, the program helps more than 26 million low-income people purchase food for themselves and their families. It's designed as a safety net to help ensure people have access to food during difficult times, and the majority of people leave the program within nine months.

There are several things participants in the challenge hope to achieve. We want to raise the visibility of hunger in the United States. There are approximately 35 million people in our country for whom food insecurity is a daily reality. We want to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by low income people in obtaining a healthy diet (I will describe some of my experiences with this at the supermarket today below). Finally, we want to build support for improving benefits and access to the food stamp program, which is due to be reauthorized this year as part of the Farm Bill.

Today, I went to the store to buy groceries, and this is what I ended up buying:2 cans of beans1 can of peas1 box of crackers1 bag of brown rice1 package of chicken thighs1 package of tortillas1 loaf of wheat bread1 box of grits2 bananasTotal: $13.37

I was struck by how hard it is to eat in a healthy manner on a tight budget. I had to put the apples back because they were too expensive. Whole wheat tortillas were twice as expensive as flour. I got grits instead of oatmeal, and I could not afford to get some of the things I eat every day, like nuts, juice or coffee (even instant coffee was $4 per container!).

My gameplan for today was to skip breakfast and go to McDonalds for lunch, where I got a McChicken sandwich for $1.10 and picked up some free condiments.

So far, so good, although I am already ready for a snack. I will continue to update you on my progress.

On June 4, 2007, Representative Jan Schakowsky appeared on The Cobert Report and spoke with host Stephen Cobert about the Food Stamp Challenge she just completed, along with her colleagues Reps. Jim McGovern, Tim Ryan and Jo Ann Emerson. Each of them lived on $3 per day for one week, the average food stamp benefit.

May 24, 2007

The
challenge was presented to me, first as a tease, then once I thought about the
real effect, experience, and knowledge it would give me, it was on. I started
by planning what foods were healthy, but less expensive and where to buy, I
tried the closest market or food stores that offered fresh and some forms of
sale items (by using coupons from the papers, computer, etc.) After I purchased
my food, I had to be creative in cooking, (by the way, I'm a great cook, smile)
the amount of what I would eat, then became an issue. I prepared for 4days
(lunch and dinner). I would eat boiled eggs (yolk free) in the AM. Everything
was fine, until Sunday, it was my sister's birthday and I took her out,
something we planned in advance, before this challenge, so I have extended my
time. The overall challenge has enlighten, created my awareness for the complete
use for vitamins, and it has shown that having the ability to find ways to
change my eating habits, helped eliminate access pounds, mission accomplish, I
feel great. (I LOST 4lbs) However, for those who are during this on a daily
basis, more is needed, the knowledge of where to get fresh foods at low cost,
convenience of locations, access to coupons for discounts, and increase the
funds for food stamps. This was a small eye-opening of the real challenge of
the Food Stamp Program; can we afford not to do more?

May 23, 2007

The Food Stamp Challenge is over, and I made it through the
week without cheating. I lost three
pounds, triumphed over my addiction to Diet Pepsi (for the week only), and feel
quite proud of myself.

Enough about me. Here
are the lessons I learned:

Living on food stamps is not just about the food. It takes a lot of planning ahead to live on a
food stamp budget, and still, even if you get the calories you need, you can’t
get the nutrients. Maybe some nutrition
expert can figure out how one can eat healthily on a food stamp diet, but I
can’t see how it’s done. Fruits and
vegetables, especially fresh ones, are very expensive relative to foods like
pastas and bread.

Cooking makes the dollars go further. The chicken I roasted carried me through the
weekend. I made chicken soup with ramen
noodles to go with my chicken dinners and chicken salad for lunch. To be very honest, I almost never cook,
except on special family holidays like Passover and Thanksgiving. One needs to know how to cook, must have the
time to cook, and the oven to cook in. Low-income
Americans who live in cheap motels, for example, may have neither refrigerators
nor stoves.

My diet was pretty boring, though the chicken made it quite
a bit better. Good thing I like
chicken. Again, I’m sure someone with
more skill in the kitchen and more time than I have, could plan more
interesting meals.

I spoke with a radio talk show host today, who said that
food stamps just increase dependency, that poor people should be taught a
lesson, and that they should just stop having children. He also said that food
stamps were just meant to supplement anyway, that kids get free meals at
school, and that poor people should get their lazy selves off their couches and
get a job.

I tried to keep my cool and countered that most of those
families receiving food stamps had at least one and maybe two working adults in
them, and even working full time at a low wage job put that family below the
poverty level, and that, even if he was right, which he wasn’t, should the
children be punished by sending them to bed or to school hungry or
malnourished? I said it was in our
interest to ensure a generation of healthy children if we want to be
competitive in the world, and besides that it was a moral issue that in the wealthiest
country in the world, tens of millions of people struggle to have enough to eat
every day and many fail. Talk about clueless and cold, in my estimation, that
guy was it.

We are heading into summer vacation, which is a time of
particularly high risk, since many children will not have access to the
breakfast and lunch programs they receive during the school year.

It’s clear to me that Congress must act and pass the
provisions of Representatives Jim McGovern’s and Jo Ann Emerson’s Feeding America’s
Families Act. I am grateful to them for
inviting me to participate in the Food Stamp Challenge. Now I hope it will make more than a three
pound difference.